You say you've heard the expression that "Awakening is by Grace." Someone once said to one of the enlightened masters, "Do I not need Grace to make Self-realization possible?" The sage replied, "That you are sitting here asking this question is Grace!" And so Ramana has said, "Grace is the Self. It is not something to be acquired." He also said that sincerity is Grace, and realization is Grace. In other words, Grace can be said to be the Self looking for itself or at itself, so far as the scriptures are concerned.

This leads again to the (so-called) "question of free will." As Ramana has also said, you could only possibly have free will "as long as the body lasts"; in other words, free will is nothing more than an idea, or concept, which occurs in the mortal mind. Of course, "you" are the supposed agent of the activities of free will--an extension of the same self-centered notion.

"Is there such a thing as free will, or not?" To paraphrase the answer Ramana gave to a related question, free will is as real as "you" are.